[quote name='epobirs']It is a thread like this that separates the grownups from the children.
Kids, out in the real world there are many people who have control of massive sums of money and are often called upon to make decisions regarding that money and its possible application to products that such powerful people can rarely command a direct expertise of its strengths and failings. Thus there are companies who take on the role of researching these thing and allowing the money folks to make educated guesses as to whether Sony stock will be a good buy in the near future or the company is holding a gun to its own head while shouting, "I'll do it!"
The market for this research is small but comprised of people who don't blink at the price tag. They've had more expensive lunches in their time.
There are variations on the theme. Micro Design Resources is in the business of writing highly technical analyses on semiconductor products. These reports typically go into far greater depth than anything you'll find on a free web site. It cost a good chunk of change every year to subscribe to Microprocessor Report but it's worth it. I just received their piece on the Cell chip today, writen by the same guy who did the authoritative analysis of the PS2 chipset years ago, and it's a hell of a read. For instance, it makes a pretty good argument for the target speed of the PS3 being 3 GHz due to the power draw of the Cell compared to the Emotion Engine and the allowable power envelope for a game console.[/quote]
I'd imagine that would have to be a good read. I'd imagine that having access to that information would have to be a nice little perk of your job.
Of course, it probably seems fairly commonplace to you by now...
its one of those things.. I pass things at work all day that I know people are just dying to see, but since I've seen it every day for months on end, its just kind of "there" now.